Obama budget may advance Plum Island sale

Plans to replace the aging Plum Island Animal Disease Center off the East End with a larger, more secure facility in Kansas got a boost this week from President Barack Obama's proposed budget.

The budget request submitted to Congress contains $150 million for construction of the National Bio and Agro-defense facility in Manhattan, Kan.

If approved, the money would advance the process of shuttering Plum Island, which must be sold to defray the costs if the new lab is built elsewhere under the terms of a 2008 appropriations bill.

The Department of Homeland Security facility would allow for research on Ebola and other potentially fatal diseases that cannot be studied at the smaller and outdated Plum Island.

But Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) - who has opposed the closure and sale of Plum Island - wants to block the Kansas funding. He has submitted an amendment doing just that to a continuing budget resolution being considered by the House this week.

Last fall, an independent scientific review by the National Research Council said federal plans for the Kansas lab had underestimated risks from the accidental release of disease pathogens, such as foot-and-mouth disease.

Homeland Security officials say the new lab is critical to protecting the public and the food supply from bioterrorism and foreign animal diseases. The cost of the new lab has been estimated at $700 million to $900 million.